


practise first

by cant



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 18:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13487487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cant/pseuds/cant
Summary: austin tries not to kill his girlfriend reading her mind





	practise first

Austin tried not to read people’s minds on purpose. It was partly due to the fact he didn’t really care, and partly because he didn’t want to hurt them. He’d put enough of his classmates in comas and accidentally given them enough seizures to fill him up with enough guilt for a lifetime.

Makoto was different. He didn’t hate her. “Wanna try again?” she asked.

Austin breathed out. “Uh huh,” he said, clasping his hands into fists in his lap. His head was starting to seriously pound now, tension pressing in on all sides, and little pin-pricks of pain were twinging neurons here and there. He ignored it and certainly wouldn’t tell Mako. “Okay, go.”

She grinned, sitting up a little straighter, and closed her eyes. Austin took a second to look her over, finally allowing himself a little smile. She looked so weird without hair - as pretty as she was, she’d certainly looked better with it - but every time he looked at her little half grown-out pixie cut he was reminded of how shocked he’d been when she’d just helped him shave his off and then, as he broke down and cried, she’d wordlessly shaved off her own.

“Austin?”

“Sorry,” he said, trying again. He closed his eyes. Concentrate on one voice.

“What am I thinking about?”

It was so hard to narrow it down. He could hear her sister’s thoughts, their adopted brother’s, someone next door, someone in the car outside. Voices, crowding around. Makoto’s was looking impossible to find - then he heard it.

She was thinking about him, and he had to do a double take. It was harder to see images, but she had a hazy one of him standing in their kitchen, making brownies, and the back of his head looked strange without hair. 

His head was killing him now, a migraine like a knife in his skull, but it was what she was thinking as she looked at him - she was wondering if they’d get married, if they’d have a kid, staring at his baggy shirt and his long, shaky fingers, his shaved head like a hospital patient or a prison inmate. She’d call the kid something nice, like Leaf, something natural that came from two people so unnatural. 

Austin opened his eyes. For a second the light burned, but it settled when she looked at him in curiosity. “Leaf?” 

Makoto frowned at him for a second before she blushed furiously and leaned over to hit him on the arm. “I don’t know,” she mumbled, folding her arms like a child. “Shut up.”   
“I didn’t say anything.” 

“You were thinking it,” she pouted, shuffling over to sit by him. She handed him a tissue, something he barely realised he needed until he swallowed and got a mouthful of blood. 

After a second of gagging, he wiped it all away and winced when she patted him on the head - his body still expected to be hit, but her hands were so gentle. Her lips touched his cheek. “You’re getting better at that, baldy,” she smiled, pulling her legs up to his lap, pulling the duvet up a little further so it covered their feet.

“Sh,” he murmured, closing his eyes and falling back, “yeah, we should get a cat. Call it Leaf.” 

She didn’t say it aloud, but she thought it. _Didn’t you kill cats?_

“Accidentally,” he mumbled, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her bed was always so much warmer than his. 

“Maybe we can wait. Practise first,” she smiled, kissing his nose and turning to become the little spoon. “Silly.”


End file.
